NIKE STAFFERS SAT around a conference room table inside the company\u2019s Oregon headquarters in late 2002 examining a space-age material.<\/p>\n
Black and tubelike, Tech Flex had commonly been found inside cars and airplanes. Its grip expanded and contracted whatever was placed inside it.<\/p>\n
Staffers saw it as a possible foundation for the next frontier of a basketball sneaker, one that wouldn\u2019t feature laces.<\/p>\n
Gentry Humphrey, a Nike executive tasked with marketing the shoe, looked at its braided sleeving. \u201cIt kind of looks like a snake,\u201d he thought to himself. Others thought the same.<\/p>\n
At home late that night, Humphrey searched the internet for more information about \u201cthe most badass black snake there is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The search didn\u2019t take long. The top result: black mamba.<\/p>\n
The snake was described as lightning fast, agile and feared — the same qualities of the star NBA guard for whom they were designing the shoe.<\/p>\n
Humphrey, who had worked at Nike since 1994, quickly prepared a presentation that featured the snake as the centerpiece of a new sneaker campaign. Alongside photos of the snake were videos of the NBA star attacking the basket.<\/p>\n
Soon after, Humphrey showed the presentation to his colleagues. The synergy between the material, the black mamba and the NBA star felt natural, alluring.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody was in on it,\u201d he told ESPN.<\/p>\n
From there, it was time to create a global campaign featuring the black mamba, and present it to the player who would ultimately represent it.<\/p>\n
That player was Michael Jordan.<\/p>\n
TODAY, THE BLACK mamba is synonymous with Kobe Bryant, the late Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> legend.<\/p>\n Countless posters, murals and commercials champion the intensity of his \u201cMamba Mentality.\u201d Bryant founded an academy that bore its name. Mamba Day is Aug. 24 — 8\/24 — a nod to the two jersey numbers he wore during his 20-year career with the Lakers.<\/p>\n Nearly 10 years ago, after scoring 60 points in his final game on April 13, 2016, Bryant addressed the crowd at Staples Center, declaring \u201cMamba out!\u201d — his final words as a Laker before placing the microphone on the court.<\/p>\n As part of his signature sneaker line, Nike has released several shoes featuring Mamba-related elements, including textured snakeskin patterns.<\/p>\n How a shoe and persona designed for Jordan became Bryant\u2019s instead reveals an alternate reality — one of the most remarkable untold stories in the history of sports marketing, advertising and apparel.<\/p>\n The first Air Jordans were released in 1985. The 40-year-old signature shoe line netted nearly $7.3 billion in sales for the fiscal year ending in May 2025, and the annual launch of each one involves an army of staff — and, most importantly, input from Jordan himself.<\/p>\n For the first 18 versions of the Air Jordans, initial design ideas had come from Jordan, who would provide feedback on sketches and prototypes until the shoe met his expectations.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t unusual for ideas outside of sports to influence the shoes. The Jordan 5 took inspiration from an American WWII fighter plane, the 6 from a German sports car, the 7 from West African tribal art, the 12 from the Japanese flag, the 14 from a Ferrari sports car, the 15 from a X-15 fighter plane, the 17 from jazz and an Aston Martin.<\/p>\n For the 18s, which were released in 2003, Jordan told Tate Kuerbis, the shoe\u2019s designer, that he saw a beautiful, Italian-crafted leather driving shoe, one typically used in Formula 1 races. \u201cAnd he was like, \u2018Hey, can you make a basketball shoe look like one piece of leather that is inspired by this driving shoe?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Eventually, samples of the 18 were created for him to try on.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he puts it on, that\u2019s really when it becomes the Air Jordan,\u201d Kuerbis said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s signing off like, this is good to go to market.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMJ\u2019s vision led the way,\u201d Kuerbis continued.<\/p>\n The 19s represented the first time the initial concept would come from the design team instead.<\/p>\n For years, Jordan had carried the nickname \u201cThe Black Cat,\u201d among players. Humphrey and others at Nike believed, however, that the way Jordan attacked on the court better mirrored the speed and agility of a snake — and now they had a material to represent it.<\/p>\n That concept was something of a \u201cwhite whale\u201d for the industry — the laceless shoe. There had never been a performance basketball shoe without laces, but the Tech Flex material now made that possible, Humphrey and Kuerbis said.<\/p>\n Now all they needed to do was sell Jordan on their idea.<\/p>\n EXCITEMENT GREW AFTER Humphrey\u2019s presentation for a black mamba campaign for the Air Jordan 19s.<\/p>\n Soon after, Kuerbis began working on sketches and prototypes.<\/p>\n He recalled bringing them to see Jordan during an off-day when the Wizards were in Miami to play the Heat.<\/p>\n In the locker room, Jordan, who was then wearing the just-launched 18s, examined the shoe. Those who worked with him say he was always careful, inquisitive, protective of the brand — and, most of all, competitive. He wanted his shoes to be the best.<\/p>\n He asked if the Tech Flex material stretched over time. Would it still provide the necessary support during a game? He suggested that it might be good to have some laces under the braided sleeving. In all, Kuerbis said, Jordan was \u201cexcited and curious and onboard.\u201d<\/p>\n Humphrey and Kuerbis pushed forward. They recalled a meeting with Jordan in the spring of 2003, as his NBA career was winding down, in an office in downtown Chicago, with a handful of Nike officials in attendance.<\/p>\n It was there that Humphrey said he first explained the black mamba campaign concept to Jordan.<\/p>\n By then, Humphrey said the idea had already been shared internally with advertising and marketing officials at Jordan Brand, and they had launched on how to present it to a global audience.<\/p>\n But as soon as Humphrey began to walk Jordan through the black mamba concept, he knew there was a major problem.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could just tell from the very beginning,\u201d Humphrey said, \u201che was uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n IN THE SPRING of 2003, after receiving the black mamba brief from the Jordan Brand team, Tina Davis of the Wieden+Kennedy advertising firm gathered her team in New York.<\/p>\n Nike had used Wieden+Kennedy since 1982, and Dan Wieden — one of its founders — had coined Nike\u2019s famous \u201cJust Do It\u201d slogan. The firm was also behind the Air Jordan commercials that featured Spike Lee as \u201cMars Blackmon\u201d in the late 1980s and early 1990s.<\/p>\n Typically, Wieden+Kennedy would receive a brief, then take the core of an idea and try to express it visually in the most ambitious way across a variety of platforms: commercials, print advertisements, billboards, posters.<\/p>\n Justin Barocas, then a Wieden+Kennedy media director, said they wanted to create visuals for the black mamba campaign that had \u201cstopping power.\u201d<\/p>\n They first tried to find a live black mamba snake, typically found in sub-Saharan Africa, in the hopes of placing it in a cage with the shoe for a photoshoot.<\/p>\n \u201cThen we learned that they\u2019re illegal in the United States,\u201d Davis recalled. \u201cYou can\u2019t even bring them into the country.\u201d<\/p>\n They used a different black snake, one that was so large, said Charles Hall, then a Wieden+Kennedy associate creative director, \u201cthat you wouldn\u2019t have wanted it loose in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n Inside the New York office, they stitched photos together to digitally recreate a version of the black mamba slithering around the shoe, rearing its head, and the team prepared for the targeted spring 2004 launch of the Air Jordan 19.<\/p>\n The next step was for Jordan to visit the Nike campus to see the campaign for himself.<\/p>\n IN LATE 2003, Jackie Thomas stood in an empty conference room on the Nike campus, her back to the door, going over the notes of a presentation she was about to deliver.<\/p>\n She heard a deep voice behind her.<\/p>\n \u201cYou must be Jackie.\u201d<\/p>\n She turned around.<\/p>\n \u201cYou must be MJ,\u201d she said, extending her hand to the man himself, the namesake of the empire who had his own reserved parking space on the campus.<\/p>\n Thomas was Jordan Brand\u2019s new director of marketing, a position she assumed in August 2003 that tasked her with overseeing marketing for all Jordan products, with a focus on increased innovation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a very robust retro business,\u201d she told ESPN. \u201cAnd there was concern — rightfully so — that the brand was leaning very heavily on the retro market, and we did not want to kill the golden goose.\u201d<\/p>\n The goal was to preserve the integrity of a retro product but also move it into the future. The 19, she said, was a key part of that effort, and Wieden+Kennedy had already created the ads for the launch. The entire campaign was in place.<\/p>\n It was now her job to explain it to Jordan.<\/p>\n Thomas had spent weeks prepping, planning, researching. Marketing, apparel, footwear and advertising staffers soon packed the room. Thomas\u2019 mission was to describe every aspect of the launch.<\/p>\n Across the next hour, she dissected each element; the portion that mentioned the black mamba snake lasted about 15 minutes.<\/p>\n While she talked, Jordan seemed enthusiastic, and when the presentation ended, Thomas felt relieved and excited — like she\u2019d hit a home run.<\/p>\n The next day, Thomas said, she received a call from Larry Miller, the president of Jordan Brand.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come down to my office?\u201d he asked. \u201cI\u2019ve got to talk to you about something.\u201d<\/p>\n Still riding high, she didn\u2019t think anything of the call. She bounded down the hall.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s up, boss?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, good job in there yesterday,\u201d Miller said. \u201cMJ really liked the meeting. The product looked great, but you\u2019ve got a problem.<\/p>\n \u201cMJ doesn\u2019t like snakes.\u201d<\/p>\n THOMAS WAS PERPLEXED. No one had told her Jordan didn\u2019t like snakes. At no point during the meeting did Jordan convey such an impression.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I wasn\u2019t involved in product creation,\u201d she told Miller, \u201cand you guys all knew that the snake was a large part of the story around the product design. And I think this campaign is really good.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller shrugged.<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s MJ\u2019s number,\u201d he told her. \u201cGive him a call. Sell him on it.\u201d<\/p>\n She took a breath, steeled herself and dialed.<\/p>\n It was late in the week, a Thursday, she said.<\/p>\n No answer. She called again later that day — again, no answer. She called twice the next day. She left voicemails.<\/p>\n The weekend arrived, and Thomas paced through her Oregon home.<\/p>\n Thomas gathered her team and crunched the numbers. On Sunday, she called Jordan again and left a detailed voicemail.<\/p>\n The launch was just months away, and plans were in place, she explained — advertisements, marketing. There was no way they could suddenly tell retailers, for instance, that they had no visuals, no in-store point-of-sale material.<\/p>\n The sales team had already placed ads to be published. There had been countless meetings, countless checkpoints, and they all had the green light. Hitting pause, she said, could translate to millions of dollars in losses.<\/p>\n A couple hours later, Jordan called her back. He said he understood.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m OK on this one particular occasion to allow you to run the ad,\u201d he told her, \u201cbut you need to reconcept before the next colorway drops.\u201d<\/p>\n She thanked him, appreciative of the compromise.<\/p>\n After the call, she sent him a box of Davidoff Millennium cigars and a thank-you note.<\/p>\n On March 14, 2004, the same month the $165 shoe launched, a two-page black mamba Air Jordan 19 advertisement appeared in ESPN The Magazine, part of a print-focused run that Thomas said included other national magazines. It carried the tagline \u201cOnly Greatness Equals Greatness.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, the campaign quickly pivoted.<\/p>\n